Manchester City v Club Brugge: Champions League – live

It’s taken longer than I expected but Andy Gracie has a higher-numbered back four for us: “If Bradley (84) and Quansah (78) are both in Liverpool’s defence that’s 162 straight off the bat. Throw in Robertson or Tsimikas and you’re already way over. Van Dijk’s piddling 4 isn’t even necessary.”

Imagine the face he’d make if you left him out though.

Email! “Club Brugge’s efforts to play out of the back on the left side should be interesting,” reckons Peter Oh. “A game of Simon (Mignolet) – Seys.”

“Why didn’t you hold it?”

“I forgot to say Simon says.”

So where is the game? City will do what they usually do, keeping possession, but I also expect them to get the ball forward more quickly than in previous seasons as they don’t quite have the confidence or quality to work it, but still have insane ability in attack.

Brugge, though, have routes to goal: Tzolis and Vanaken are having superb seasons and if they can outmuscle and outrun city in midfield – and there’s every chance they can – they’ve a chance to take advantage of a ropey back five and, in particular, a midfielder unused to playing full-back. Of course the likeliest outcome is a comfortable City win, but there’ve not been many of those lately.

Brugge rested half a team for their weekend draw with Kortrijk; Meijer, Romero, Skoras, Nielsen, Veltlesen and Nilsson drop out, with Ordonez, De Cuyper, Onyedika, Talbi, Vanaken and Jutgla coming in.

City make two enforced changes to the team which impressed in coming from behind to beat Chelsea: Kusanov and Marmoush are ineligible, so Stones and De Bruyne replace them. I semi-wonder if, in practice, they go three at the back with Nunes inverting into midfield – there’s a real shortage of pace and power as things stands, though a whole lot of nous and skill – and either way, Tzolis, Brugge’s right-winger – who has 19 goal involvements in 33 games so far this season – will be fancying himself to do something.

I wonder if there’s ever been a back four whose numbers add up to more than Brugge’s 168; presumably there has, but good effort nonetheless.

I’m going to write these down, then we’ll wonder what they might mean.

Teams!

I mentioned potential winners below, and perhaps the most impressive performance I’ve seen so far came last week when PSG walloped City. Perhaps it was no more than due punishment for perhaps the worst kit of all time, but there was a vibrancy and energy about Paris that felt different.

I remember when Man United first played in black, Ryan Giggs said the players felt unbeatable in the kit, so smart was it. This absolute Digsy’s Dinner of a rig might well have the opposite effect.

It’s incredible really: I’m not sure any British band is as synonymous with the 80s as Duran Duran, and yet their two best tunes came well into the 90s. Stop here for yet more revelatory insight.

Tonight, by the way, it’s Watkins not Duran. If things come undone, the Colombian will, as a reflex, be hungry like the wolf to restore an ordinary world.

Tangentially:

This is what can happen when teams only play one up, they’re not winning the big pots, and there’s a dearth of centre-forwards in the world. I’m not certain Ollie Watkins is really the level Arsenal want, but they need someone and, with Jhon Duran also at Villa Park, every time they kick 0ff, one of them is going to be sat at the side.

Which is to say there are a lot of teams in the playoff and last 16 who, if they turn up, are capable of beating opponents with more money. I guess the likelihood is that, by the last eight and definitely by the last four, it’s the usual names, but don’t rule out some surprises. No one will fancy facing Atalanta or Villa, while Leverkusen also have a chance.

I may receive heat for this hot take, but none of the below are all that are they? Liverpool are good, of course, but they’re not that good; already this season, Barca have lost to Osasuna, Las Palmas and Leganes; yet they’ve clattered Madrid, who generally hang about until someone good does something good, twice; and so on.

As it stands:

Back to the burning kiosk, City have said as follows:

Manchester City FC can confirm that there has been a fire in one of the outside merchandise kiosks, located near the entrance to the Colin Bell West Stand. Emergency services are present at the scene and the fire has now been extinguished. The safety of all attending the match tonight is our top priority, and as such all events planned for West Stand reception have been cancelled, including the welcome event for new players, and the first team arrival.”

Lucky they clarified their identity with an “FC”, we’d not have known who was using City’s X account otherwise.

Seeing as we’re talking USA ’94, here’s one from the annals – you can probably guess how an ex-editor of mine pronounced that final word. I can’t recall many – if any – goals which prompted such uniform shock and joy.

You can follow the fun from around Europe, here, with Scott Murray:

So here’s where I actually planned to start: Rob Smyth’s banging piece about the final night of qualifying for USA ’94.

Welcome to Manchester!

I was about to start elsewhere, but here’s some news from outside the ground, courtesy of Press Association:

An area outside the Etihad Stadium was evacuated after a merchandise stand caught fire ahead of Manchester City’s Champions League game against Club Brugge. Supporters had gathered outside the main reception for a presentation of City’s January signings. The event was suspended as flames took hold of the stand and stewards moved fans away before fire services arrived on the scene. It is unknown at this stage whether the incident will affect the scheduled kick-off time of 8pm.”

Preamble